Singapore to contract high-quality nature-based carbon credits from four projects in Ghana, Peru, and Paraguay

25 September 2025

On 16 September 2025, the National Climate Change Secretariat (“NCCS”) announced that NCCS and the Ministry of Trade and Industry will contract 2.175 million tonnes worth of high-quality nature-based carbon credits from four projects in Ghana, Peru, and Paraguay. These contracts follow the request for proposal (“RFP”) launched in September 2024 for nature-based carbon credits to meet Singapore’s 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution (“NDC”) under the Paris Agreement.

Use of Article 6 carbon credits to meet decarbonisation targets 

Under its 2030 NDC, Singapore aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and reduce emissions to around 60 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (“MtCO₂e”) by 2030 after peaking emissions earlier. To meet these targets, Singapore introduced a carbon tax and is investing in multiple decarbonisation pathways such as solar deployment, renewable energy imports, and carbon capture and storage. However, Singapore’s ability to fully decarbonise its economy is constrained as it is a small, densely populated island city-state with limited natural resources.

Given these constraints, the use of carbon credits under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement provides Singapore with a viable and effective complementary pathway to achieve its decarbonisation targets. Singapore’s supply of Article 6-compliant carbon credits will come from taxable facilities, as well as direct procurement by the Singapore Government. A second RFP for such Article 6-compliant carbon credits will be launched later this year.  

Article 6 carbon credits can serve as a catalyst to unlock green growth opportunities in areas such as carbon trading, carbon advisory, project development, financing, monitoring, reporting, and verification. The Singapore Government will continue to facilitate opportunities for Singapore-based companies to capture value in the emerging area of carbon markets. 

Selection of nature-based projects

Through the RFP launched in September 2024, the Singapore Government sought to identify projects that could generate high-quality nature-based solutions (“NBS”) carbon credits with high environmental integrity. Key features of such projects include ensuring additionality, low leakage risks, permanence, and co-benefits to surrounding communities.

Pursuant to this RFP, Singapore has decided to contract NBS carbon credits from four NBS projects:

• Kowen Antami REDD+ project (Peru)
• Together for Forests REDD+ project (Peru)
• Boomitra Grassland Restoration Project (Paraguay)
• Kwahu Landscape Restoration Project (Ghana)

REDD+ refers to “reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, plus the conservation and sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks”, a framework developed under the Paris Agreement.

The projects aim to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation, increase carbon sequestration of soil organic carbon stock in grasslands through sustainable management practices, and remove carbon emissions through the reforestation of degraded pastureland. Carbon credits help to channel funds towards the preservation or regeneration of host countries’ natural carbon sinks and biodiversity, safeguard local communities’ access to income from sustainable land use, and provide ecosystem benefits such as improving water quality.

Singapore will procure carbon credits corresponding to emissions reductions of 2.175 MtCO₂e, at a value of around S$76 million, for use across 2026 to 2030. This works out to around S$35 per credit, equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide emissions, amounting to nearly 4% of Singapore’s total emissions in 2022.

The contracted projects must use methodologies bilaterally agreed to by Singapore and the respective host country, and secure authorisation under the relevant government-to-government Implementation Agreement (“IA”). To date, Singapore has signed IAs with nine countries, namely Bhutan, Chile, Ghana, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Paraguay, Rwanda, Thailand, and Vietnam. Under each of the IAs, Singapore is committed to channelling the value equivalent to 5% of the share of proceeds from authorised carbon credits towards climate adaptation measures of the respective host countries.

Practical impact

These contracts are Singapore’s first purchased carbon credits and mark an important milestone in its climate strategy. The credits contribute towards Singapore’s NDC under the Paris Agreement, offering a credible pathway to decarbonisation and signalling the role that carbon markets can play in global climate action. For a country like Singapore, which faces inherent constraints in reducing emissions domestically, carbon credits provide a practical means of progress. As the Economic Development Board has highlighted, access to carbon credits is also especially important for companies in hard-to-abate sectors where low-carbon technologies need time to be commercially available.

Aligned with Singapore’s ambition to become a leading carbon services and trading hub, further projects and agreements of this nature are expected, laying the foundation for high-integrity carbon markets. Amid the continued debate around the use of carbon credits in generating real emissions reduction, particularly around the permanence of nature-based projects, the proactive move by the Singapore Government can be seen as helping to build credibility and strengthen regulatory frameworks, fostering trust in the evolving market.

Reference materials

The press release is available on the NCCS website www.nccs.gov.sg.